Maha Kumbh: Akhilesh Yadav takes holy dip at Sangam, says 'arrangements could have been better'

Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Sunday took the holy dip at the Sangam (the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers) at the Maha Kumbh in Prayagraj.

Speaking to reporters after taking the dip, Akhilesh took potshots at the Uttar Pradesh government over arrangements in the Mahakumbh and said that the arrangements could have been better.

‘’The arrangements at the Maha Kumbh could have been better....the devotees should not be made to walk for hours to reach the Sangam....the state government had sufficient budget,’’ he said.

He also decried attempts to politicise the Maha Kumbh and said that there was no place for ‘’negative and divisive politics’’ at such an event.

The SP leader, who took the dip eleven times in the Sangam waters, said that the people came to Mahakumbh on their own and without any invitation. ‘’Everyone comes here on his own....no one invites them,’’ he added.

Akhilesh’s remarks came in an apparent response to the BJP leaders’ attacks on him following his criticism of alleged attempts to ‘politicse’ the event.

‘’Akhilesh must visit the Mahakumbh to see the arrangements there,’’ UP deputy chief minister and senior BJP leader Keshav Prasad Maurya had said.

Akhilesh had retorted by saying that he would go to Mahakumbh whenever he felt like doing so and not on the invitation of the BJP leaders. Earlier he had taken the dip at the Ganga waters in Haridwar.